Shampoo Free & Plaine Products

Poo Free-About two years ago I decided to try the “poo free” route with my hair. This meant no more washing with shampoos and conditioners. I wanted to try this mainly because those products contain a ton of chemicals, dyes, and fragrances that are bad for you. They also strip your head of all of your natural oils; in return making your hair more oily on no wash days. Your body is trying to make up for the lack of natural oils present! While getting used to the no poo, I used a baking soda/water mixture to clean my scalp and diluted apple cider vinegar on my ends as my conditioner. I was pretty nervous to do this because I have crazy frizzy, curly, out of control hair. But, embracing the more natural lifestyle I decided to go for it.

At first, it was pretty oily. Lets just say I wore my hair up a lot with headbands. The baking soda helped, but my scalp was still holding on to all of the oil. While my hair was transitioning, it was trying to balance itself back out which is why there was so much extra oil. After a few months, my hair actually started to look good. Every other wash, I would use baking soda on my scalp and in between just rinse with water. I no longer wanted to use any harsh hair products so I ditched all of what I owned. I instead started using an oil (weird, huh?) on my hair to help with the frizz and define my curls. And guess what? My curls had NEVER looked so good. My hair went longer between getting oily and it actually looked healthy. My hair never stunk, it just didn’t smell like flowers and smelled more like a human. To say I was surprised by this outcome would be an understatement.

Just letting my hair do its natural thing really worked for me!

So typically people do this for a few months just to give themselves a break and then go back to their routines. Not me, I wanted to stay poo free! Plus I was really loving my new full of life curls. We started using Dr. Bronners soap as our body wash. We absolutely love that stuff. Maybe a year or so in to poo free, I gave it a try on my hair and it actually worked nicely. Instead of using baking soda, I started using this soap once every three washes to clean my hair.

Now What? After awhile, this soap didn’t work the best for my long wrangly hair. It was getting very greasy and didn’t look the best. I wasn’t opposed to using shampoos again, but I did’t want ANYTHING that was going to produce a ton of plastic waste and I needed something very healthy. This wasn’t easy to find. So many products use plastic containers. In Omaha there aren’t any bulk stores that I’m aware of that sell this type of stuff (If there are, please let me know about them!!). Plus, shampoos from companies that were supposedly healthy were SO expensive. I’m talking around $35+ for an 8 oz bottle. There weren’t any companies that stood out as companies I’d truly want to support, either. What the company stands for also is super important to me.

Plaine Products- Then I came across a company called Plaine Products. I learned of this company from the non-profit organization I am an ambassador for, Be Zero. Plaine Products make products that are made with all natural, like actually natural, ingredients that come from nature’s most nutrient and vitamin-rich plants, minerals, and renewable sources AND it comes in sustainable packaging.

What’s Inside- These products are never tested on animals, free of sulfates, paragons and phthalates, have zero animal byproducts, and are gentle on the environment as they are biodegradable! The main ingredient is Aloe Vera Extract including 75 nutrients, 8-essential amino acids as well as vitamins A, B1, B2, B6, B12, C and E. And an added bonus is they don’t use palm oil. Their vegetable glycerin is derived from coconut oil! They offer shampoo and conditioner in two scents; rosemary mint vanilla and citrus lavender. They also sell body wash, hand wash, body lotion and travel sized shampoo, conditioner and body wash.

Packaging- One thing that was also important to me was creating less waste and Plaine Products doesn’t fall short on this end. All of their products are packaged in aluminum bottles that you return to them to be refilled and reused! Aluminum is easily cleaned and sterilized so that they can be safely used again and again. Once they have lived a long life they will be recycled. Aluminum has been proven to be one of the most important materials in successful recycling programs because it can be completely recycled without any loss in quality.

This method of having a circular mindset is one that we don’t see very often anymore. A circular mindset functions like a natural ecosystem where nothing is ever wasted. By Plain Products also cleaning and reusing their jars, they are able to create more jobs so it helps the economy as well. Their shipping boxes are made from 95% post-consumer waste and 5% post-industrial waste and have NO new materials in the manufacturing of the shipping cartons. These boxes can stand up to shipping refills and returning empty jars to be refilled and reused!

Win, win, win!

What I bought- After learning all about this product I was all in for trying it! I decided to purchase a travel size set. I figured this would give me a good taste of if I’ll like the product enough to keep using it on my crazy hair plus I love that I would be gaining sustainable bottles to travel with! I purchased body wash in rosemary mint vanilla and the shampoo and conditioner in citrus lavender. The scent combos sounded a little strange to me, but man do they smell so good! I wish there was smell-o-vision for you all to experience it, too! I can’t wait to give this a try on my hair and will let you know what I think of the product once I do!